The Girl with Cat's Eyes

C H A P T E R 1

wake up

in an empty place

I remember nothing

and I just want

peace

and

C H A P T E R 1

I woke up on a soft bed to the sweet sound of silence. I lay there listening for a while, just listening, before opening my eyes. At first the light blinded me, I guess because I wasn't used to it, but my vision cleared I could make out a white painted ceiling. I was in a room, I soon realized, but it was simple, not overly extravagant, and in the corner sitting on a chair was a boy. He looked about my age, maybe a year or two older, so around seventeen or eighteen, and he had a mop of dark chestnut hair, but I couldn't see his face, because his head had flopped forward onto his chest, as he lay sleeping.

I sighed. I had no idea where I was, why I was here, or who the strange boy in the chair was. In fact, I soon realized I had no idea of who I myself was. But I knew something bad had happened, I could feel it, I knew there must have been darkness tangled up in there somewhere. I knew that something so horrible had happened that my brain had sealed it off to protect me, formed a shell around old painful memories.

I felt a tear trickle down my cheek, but I wasn't quite sure why. Ever since I had woken I had had felt this strange sense of emptiness, grief, despair. Like someone I had loved very much had died, been taken from me, or, what I feared most, left me. Except I couldn't remember who. And I knew that I loved no one. Or at least I never would from now, never again if it caused me this kind of pain, which it seemed to. I didn't remember before, and I wasn't sure I really wanted to.

I lowered my eyes to my hands and started to fiddle with them. There were scars on them, scars that disappeared up my sleeve, that new would run all the way up to my shoulder. I wondered what had happened to cause these. They looked like they had been made with a knife or something sharp. I traced them over and over with my forefinger. And then I felt his gaze on me. I raised my head.

The boy was awake and staring at me, with a mix of emotions in his eyes, unreadable yet so human. I saw confusion, worry, horror, and something I couldn't quite understand: anger.

I shrank back into the pillows automatically, not quite sure why. He looked dangerous almost; there was a sort of animal glint in his eye. I didn't like it.

The boy stood, and walked over to where I lay. His eyes flickered to my face. And then he reached out a hand to touch my cheek. I flinched back, recoiled as though I had been slapped, although I wasn't much sure why.

'Shh, Shh, it's okay, I- we won't hurt you. We found you in the woods, in a bad way. We just want to make you better, to help you... Can you tell us why you are here? Can you tell us what happened, what you were running from?' He glanced at my scared eyes. 'Can you understand me?'

I glared at him- of course I could understand him- but then I wondered what he meant by we. I looked around the room before seeing a woman leaning on the door frame. She was big- there was no other way to describe it- but a nice big. She had rosy cheeks and wisps of blonde hair fell around her face. I wondered how she'd gotten in the room without me hearing her...

'Hello, love. You have been in the wars, out ever since we found you three days ago.' She said. 'I'm Sarah, and I see you have already met Jesse here...'

'She'll be fine,' the Doctor said. 'She just needs rest, and time to heal, inside and out...'

'Of course, Doctor, I- that is Jesse and I- will look after her as best we can... What do you suggest we do for her... To, you know, make this easier? I want her to feel safe here, yet she still flinches whenever we come near her. And she won't talk. She hasn't uttered a word since the night Jesse found her...'